WASHINGTON -- Two powerhouse athletes from Australia have committed to play in this summer’s Citi Open tennis tournament, a part of the Emirates Airline US Open Series.
 
Bernard Tomic and Lleyton Hewitt, two of the top Australian men in the ATP Top-100 rankings, will join top-ranked American John Isner and French player Gael Monfils at this year’s Citi Open. The tournament, celebrating its 45th year, will be held in the nation’s capital from July 27-August 4 at the William H.G. Fitzgerald Tennis Stadium in Rock Creek Park.
 
Fresh from helping his country’s Davis Cup team triumph over host Uzbekistan, 20-year-old Tomic comes to the Washington tournament for the first time in his already extraordinary career. His breakthrough came in 2011 at Wimbledon, when he became the youngest male to reach the quarterfinals. Highlighted by reaching a career-high ranking of No. 27, he finished 2012 as the youngest player in the Top 100 for the second straight year. Tomic started his 2013 campaign in stellar fashion by capturing his first ATP World Tour title in Sydney this past January, including a winning streak of 76 games in a row. The No. 1 Australian player is currently preparing for the French Open next month.
 
Hewitt, a two-time Grand Slam winner, returns to the DC tournament after a two-year absence. At the age of 20, he became the youngest male tennis player to be ranked No. 1 in the world. Now 32, he holds a career total of 28 singles and two doubles titles. Hewitt is a former Washington champion, having won the title in 2004.
 
The Citi Open is an ATP World Tour 500-level event—one of only 11 worldwide and the only one in the United States. It is a long-standing tradition in Washington, D.C. and is recognized by the ATP World Tour as one of the top-20 tournaments in the world. The tournament has featured legendary players, such as Arthur Ashe, Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick, Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl in its distinguished 45-year history. In addition, the tournament is a part of the prestigious Emirates Airline U.S. Open Series, the six-week summer tennis season that links nine North American hard-court tournaments to the final Grand Slam of the year, the US Open.

The Citi Open also includes a Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) International Level tournament and, therefore, offers fans both world-class men’s and women’s competition held simultaneously throughout the nine-day event. Overall, the tournament offers nearly $2 million in player compensation, featuring 48 men’s singles players and 16 doubles teams and 32 women’s singles players and 16 doubles teams.
 
The tournament’s owner and beneficiary, The Washington Tennis & Education Foundation (WTEF), provides underserved children in the D.C. area a safe environment to learn critical life skills both on and off the courts through academic and athletic enrichment.  
 
Ticket pricing and package details are now available at www.citiopentennis.com, or by phone at 202-721-9500. Daily and single session tickets are available through Ticketmaster.
 
For more information, visit the Citi Open on the web at www.citiopentennis.com. The Citi Open is on Facebook at www.facebook.com/CitiOpen and Twitter @CitiOpen. To receive news and updates about the tournament, join the growing Citi Open Text Club by texting DC to 25973. The 2013 Citi Open is a Lagardère Unlimited production.
 
About Citi
Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services and wealth management. Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com | Twitter: @Citi | YouTube: www.youtube.com/citi | Blog: http://new.citi.com | Facebook: www.facebook.com/citi | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/citi
 
About WTEF
The Washington Tennis & Education Foundation (WTEF) is a premier educational and tennis organization for underserved children in Washington, D.C. The mission of WTEF is to improve the life prospects of low-income, underserved children and youth in the District of Columbia through athletic and academic enrichment. We seek to keep children off city streets during out-of-school time in a safe environment they can trust. We also engage them in productive activities that teach discipline, build confidence, improve school performance and encourage a healthy lifestyle. We empower our students to achieve their highest potential by helping them develop meaningful values and critical life skills that will lead them to make constructive life choices. WTEF builds life champions.